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What’s on the Mind of the "Radical Middle"? main page

What’s on the Mind of the "Radical Middle"?Aired 2/1/2001

This week, Think Tank with Ben Wattenberg talks to two dyed-in-the-wool policy wonks to find out what's on their agenda. Isabel Sawhill and Rudolph Penner are co-authors of "Updating America¹s Social Contract: Economic Growth and Opportunity in the New Century," Together, they lay out an agenda for the "radical middle," arguing that politicians "seem more interested in
a symbolic victory ... than in working to find common ground on substantive issues." Penner and Sawhill stake out that common ground and urge policy reforms to improve the safety net for the poor, shore up Social Security and Medicare, and foster productivity growth in the private sector. Leaving the politicians aside for a day, how would two policy wonks address America's most important domestic issues?
Read the full transcript

Isabel Sawhill a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and an associate director of the Office of Management and Budget in the Clinton
administrationRudolph Penner senior fellow at the Urban Institute and director of the Congressional Budget Office from 1983 to 1987.

Think Tank is made possible by generous support from the Smith Richardson Foundation, the Bernard and Irene Schwartz Foundation, the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, the John M. Olin Foundation, the Donner Canadian Foundation, the Dodge Jones Foundation, and Pfizer, Inc.